Mar 10

WOW! Remember the Milk in Gmail

Posted in: Firefox Extensions, Gmail, Google, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on December 20, 2007 by CyberNet.

Remember the Milk in Gmail

Remember the Milk just became the task manager service on the Internet. If you’re running Gmail 2 in Firefox you can install the new Remember the Milk extension. It makes use of the heavily integrated Greasemonkey functionality that Google introduced in Gmail 2, and to be honest it is nothing short of amazing.

The Remember The Milk extension adds a sidebar located next to your Inbox. It does take up a reasonable amount of room, but it also makes managing your tasks sooooo easy! If it gets in the way you can just hit the little arrow to the left of your task list, and it will seemingly disappear for the time being.

After using this for only a few minutes I’m completely astonished with everything it has to offer. I had full control over adding, removing, and organizing the tasks that are displayed. To add a task you just have to type it into the text box, and here are some examples of the things it recognizes:

  • Pick up the milk
  • Call Lizzie at 9am tomorrow
  • Return library books in 2 weeks
  • Finish report, tag with work

To make things even easier Remember the Milk included a few options that can be found in your Gmail Settings -> Tasks section. There you’ll be able to choose if you want tasks to automatically be created for any email that your star or apply a specific label to.

Remember the Milk Gmail Hover

This is going to be tremendously helpful in getting myself organized. I visit my Gmail Inbox all of the time, and having my task list displayed immediately next to it will ensure that I don’t forget about what needs to get done. Thanks Remember the Milk…I may pick up a Pro account just to show my appreciation!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Mar 10

Joost Steps Out into Public Beta 1.0

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on October 01, 2007 by CyberNet.

Remember back in April when having a Joost invitation in your hands was reason for envy by those who didn’t? The launch of their private beta back then was extremely popular as everybody wanted to get the chance to give it a try. With over 15,000 TV shows and 250 channels, Joost is finally ready to step out into the public with today’s release of the Beta 1.0 version. No invitation is required, and now everybody can experience a new way to watch TV online… Joost style.

Unfortunately, I think their private beta went on for way too long and the excitement over trying it has largely faded away. Many of us who have already experienced Joost have lost interest in it for a variety of reasons whether it be the lack of content (although it appears as though they might have partially solved this issue), no real use for it, or any other reason. I tried it, but never felt compelled to go back. And even with the latest launch and improvements, I still don’t feel the need to go try it again.

joost public beta

According to NewTeeVee who sat down with the CEO of Joost Mike Volpi, they’ve already raised $45 million and they’ve got over 130 employees scattered across several different cities. From the sounds of it, they’ve got big plans of making Joost the next big thing with the help of developers to create widgets and add-ons using the Joost API.

If by chance you weren’t able to get an invitation to tryout the private beta, just head on over to Joost.com.  They’ve got a newly designed site, and of course from there you can freely download Joost without an invitation.

Source: Thanks for the tip S!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Mar 10

Edit Your Photos Online With Snipshot

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on November 06, 2006 by CyberNet.

Snipshot

Snipshot is a great and easy way for anyone to edit photos online. In just a few clicks you’ll have your photo uploaded and ready to go. In fact, if you photo is already online then you just need to provide the URL to the image in order to edit it.

It isn’t nearly as extensive as desktop photo editing software is but it offers many things that make it nice to use. My favorite feature is probably the Enhance option which appears to be a one-click way to adjust the levels in the picture to make them look the best. The Adjust screen is always available for those who want to do some manual fine tuning of the brightness, contrast, saturation, and hue.

One thing that is incredibly useful is the ability to save your image as a variety of file formats. You can save it directly to your Flickr account or as a GIF, JPG, PDF, PNG, PSD, or TIF file. I was extremely surprised myself to see that you could save it it in Photoshop’s PSD file format.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Mar 09

Yahoo Stock: How Low Can It Go?

Posted in: Microsoft, Today's Chili, Web Sites, Yahoo

This article was written on May 05, 2008 by CyberNet.

yahoo down.pngHow low can Yahoo stock go now that Microsoft has formally withdrawn their bid to acquire Yahoo? Thus far, Yahoo stock is down to $23.90, a drop of about 16% and the day has just started. Here Jerry Yang, Yahoo’s CEO was adamant that they were worth $37 per share! He’ll certainly be in the hot seat today when he comes strolling in the door to work and has to answer to all of his employees who are still in shock that Yahoo didn’t accept Microsoft’s upped offer.

Wait a second, I guess we should back-up and go-over what happened between Friday and today. On Friday, Microsoft at the very last minute decided to up their bid to offer Yahoo $33 per share, or another $5 billion dollars. On Saturday, Yang flew to Seattle with Yahoo’s other co-founder David Filo to talk to Ballmer. They were going there to tell him in person that they wouldn’t accept anything less than $37 dollars per share. You would have thought that at a face-to-face meeting like that, they would have been able to negotiate something but they didn’t. Shortly thereafter, Microsoft withdrew their bid.

Lots of Yahoo employees have stock-options, so they were clearly invested into the happenings between the two companies. Kara Swisher interviewed about a dozen Yahoo execs over the weekend to try and get an idea of where they stand and how they feel, and her article titled “I Need Some Prozac” explains it all. One exec who chose not to be identified said, “Having to face my staff tomorrow will not be so much fun and I need some Prozac, since I don’t know what I can say to them about how our leadership is going to get our company going again.”

So now what happens from here? Well, Yahoo stock will likely continue to tumble unless they act quick and try to make some last-ditch efforts to save their stock like partnering with Google or merging with AOL. If it continues to tumble and Yang isn’t able to prove that Yahoo is worth at least $37 per share, we could see Microsoft come marching back to Yahoo with a much lower offer. Yahoo would almost be forced to accept it with the backlash they received from rejecting a Microsoft offer previously, fresh in their minds.

Did Jerry Yang just make the biggest mistake of his career and will this ultimately lead to his replacement as Yahoo CEO? He’s doing his best to smooth things over right now and posted a blog titled “Ok, so now what?” In it he says, “We’ve emerged a stronger, more focused company with an even greater sense of purpose.” Unfortunately, at this point they haven’t emerged stronger and some are predicting it’s all downhill from here.

Any thoughts?

Note: If you’d like a great re-cap of what happened over the last several months, take a look at Paul Thurrott’s article titled “What might have been: A look back at Microsoft/Yahoo! coverage in WinInfo.” It’s really interesting to go back and see how all of this unraveled.

Thanks to all who sent in tips!

Sources: Here, Here, and Here

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Mar 09

New Poll: When will the Web 2.0 Bubble Burst?

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on August 28, 2007 by CyberNet.

Balloon_burstingA recent article posted at News.com talks about the deep interest that scores of investors have in social-networking web sites. There’s no doubt why there is such interest – many of these sites have proven to be extremely successful and experience continuous growth and support from venture firms. Facebook is one such example with a “year-over-year growth of 129 percent.” As they become successful, these social networking sites begin toying with the idea of an IPO as Classmates.com is currently doing, along with LinkedIn. While an IPO for any business signifies a certain level of prestige and provides capital for these companies to continue growing, it should be done when the time is right.

The problem that we saw during the dot-com bubble in the late 90’s was that companies sought after an IPO much too quickly which eventually resulted in the dot-com bubble burst. I’m certainly no expert, in fact, I’m far from it. But, I don’t think it takes an expert to see that at some point, we’ll see the Web 2.0 Bubble Burst. Venture Capitalists are forking out money left and right to companies that have a copy-cat idea. Very few of these companies will be able to stick around for the long-haul.

With all of the duplicate Web 2.0 sites, including all of the social networks who are seeking after an IPO or acquisition to cash-in big, it’ll only be a matter of time before the big burst. Those who take it slowly and wait it out will ultimately be those that land themselves on top as Google did when they held out offering an IPO until after the Dot-Com bust. Their IPO was extremely successful which is attributed to the fact that they waited for the perfect moment.

New Poll: When will the Web 2.0 Bubble Burst?

This leads us to our new poll: When will the Web 2.0 Bubble Burst? Go ahead and vote in the sidebar to the right.

It’ll burst…

  • By the end of 2007
  • Within a year
  • Within 3 years
  • In more than 3 years
  • A bubble burst is not likely to occur

Source: Thanks for the tip Curtiss!

 

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Mar 08

YouTube’s Payout Broken Down

Posted in: Google, Today's Chili, Web Sites, YouTube

This article was written on February 09, 2007 by CyberNet.

On Wednesday, a regulatory filing that Google made with the SEC revealed the details of the Google/YouTube deal. And in that deal were some unlikely recipients, many of which became instant millionaires.

First we’ll start with the obvious co-founders, Chad Hurley, Steven Chen, and Jarwed Karim.  Between the three of them, their payout totaled $700 million in Google Stock. And to think, it all started in a Menlo Park Garage two years ago, and all three of them are still in their 20′s.

Chad Hurley received Google shares worth a total of $345 million. Steven Chen received shares worth $326 million, and Jarwim Karim’s chunk was valued at $64.6 million. Sequoia Capital who backed YouTube received stocks worth around $442 million.

YouTube employees, and others with connections to YouTube  became instant millions are well including the office manager, and co-founder Chad Hurley’s parents.

Now to the un-likely recipients. How about talk show host Maury Povich who wasn’t too fond of YouTube to begin with because of the countless shows of his that were posted to YouTube over time.  He’s getting a payout because of a contribution he made to a venture capital fund managed by Sequoia Capital who dumped millions into YouTube.

When asked about his payout, Maury said “It’s like I caught lightning in a jar, I had no idea I even owned a part of YouTube.” I bet he feels different about YouTube now!

Other people that got a chunk of the payout include:

  • Electornic Arts Inc. Chariman Lawrence Probst III – 2.4 million
  • Yahoo co-found jerry Yang – $160,000
  • Netscape Communicatiosn co-founder Marc Andreessen – $120,000

There were even two schools that got a chunk:

  • Notre Dame – 18.8 million
  • University of Southern California – $14.6 Million

Of course this is the short list of people that received part of the payout.  There were many, many others with associations with YouTube or Sequoia Capital who walked away with a few extra bucks in their pocket.

Below is a graph which clearly shows YouTube’s explosive growth in 2006. They’ve definitely made a name for themselves and have a few million to show for their hard work.

Source: CNN

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Mar 06

eBay Sellers Can’t Leave Negative Feedback

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on February 06, 2008 by CyberNet.

ebay feedback eBay’s feedback system has been around ever since February of 1996 when the founder, Pierre Omidyar sought to implement a way for members to exchange experiences. He explained that some people are honest, but others aren’t and the hope was that by sharing experiences, the dishonest would be driven away. The feedback system has received a few tweaks along the way, but it’s largely remained the same ever since 96′ – both the buyer and seller can leave positive, negative, or neutral feedback. That’s all about to change though, and there are people who aren’t too happy.

Starting in May, sellers will no longer be able to leave negative feedback for buyers.  Those of you who have only bought (versus buying and selling) on eBay may think that this is great because you’ll always have 100% positive feedback. eBay is full of great buyers and great sellers, but the problem is that there is an equal amount of dishonest buyers and sellers.  As someone who sold on eBay for a living, I can vouch for this.  There are buyers that consistently don’t pay or make unreasonable demands and abuse the system.  Sellers should be able to leave them negative feedback to warn other buyers of what they might be getting into.

While there have always been some issues with the feedback system like users reluctant to leave honest feedback for fear of retaliation, the proposed changes will make it even more flawed. If eBay isn’t satisfied with their current feedback system, instead of eliminating a portion of it, it might be time to overhaul it completely. eBay should start from scratch and come up with a new way for members to exchange experiences so that the dishonest are really driven away because at this point, they aren’t, and that includes both buyers and sellers.

Source: Download Squad

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Mar 06

Yahoo Homepage “Secret”

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on August 18, 2006 by CyberNet.

Yahoo Exclamation I saw this on Digg a little while ago and I thought this was pretty cool. All you have to do is go to the Yahoo Homepage and click on the exclamation point.

I will give you one hint and it will may save you some embarrassment if you are at work: turn your speakers down to a whisper…especially if you work at Google. :)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Mar 05

Scribd Will Scan Your Documents for Free?

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on April 01, 2008 by CyberNet.

scribd paper

A lot of people are assuming that this is an April Fool’s joke, but the press release is already circulating signaling that this could very well be real. Scribd is well known for taking your digital documents and turning them into an online version that can easily be shared with others. Now they are taking it a step further by accepting your physical paper documents, and converting them into “iPaper.”

Any documents that you send to them will be scanned by a third-party partner, and will be run through an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) system. The cost of doing this is apparently offset by showing relevant ads to those viewing the documents that get scanned in and published. What happens to the documents that you send in to be scanned? Your guess is as good as mine.

So how do you go about doing this? Here are the instructions they include in the press release:

To participate, just send a brief description of the type and quantity of your documents to paper@scribd.com. A Scribd representative will reply shortly with further instructions for how and where to mail the documents. Scribd will have the content scanned and published on Scribd.com to be easily shared with anyone. Include your Scribd username along with your paper so that your content will be published in your account. If you are not a Scribd user, include your email address, and Scribd will email you a link to your published content.

One thing that I noticed on Scribd’s site is that they say “this program will be available for a limited time only.” So I assume that they are doing this as a trial run to see how successful it will end up being. If that’s the case you might want to shoot them an email soon to make sure you’re not left out in the cold.

So only time will tell whether this is an April Fool’s joke or not. If it does turn out to be real I think they could have held out for another day to avoid any of the confusion going around.

Scribd Paper Conversion Homepage [via WebWare]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Mar 05

CyberNotes: Use eSnips to Bookmark and Share Media

Posted in: CyberNotes, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on August 11, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Weekend Website

I think it’s safe to say that most of us these days share and/or store different kinds of media like photos and videos, files, and webpages that we find interesting. There are multiple services out there that specialize in storing just your videos, just your photos, or just your bookmarks, but what if there was an all-in-one solution that you could use? One option that I’ve come across that stores everything for you is eSnips.

There are multiple reasons to use eSnips. If you want to share, back-up, or have a remote storage location for all of your “stuff,” you’ll want to check it out. On their website, they describe themselves as “the ONE place where you can share all your passions; your thoughts, photos, files, stuff you find on the web… and you control who you share it with and how.”

Esnips1

That last line about controlling who you share your content with and how, is important. eSnips allows you to choose whether you want your content public or private. You decide who you want to share it with, and how you want to share it which is nice for those of you who want to share some stuff, but not everything.

Folders

One way you can organize all of your content is through the use of folders.  You’re allowed as many folders as you could ever want or need, and you can set specifics for each folder on whether you want it public or private.  If there is just one folder that you’d like to keep private, no problem.

You can have a “song folder”, a “my favorite web sites” folder, or anything that you’d like!

Esnips photos

Storage

Now because you’re using eSnips as a place to store and share all of your favorite content and media, storage is important.  When eSnips first started, they only offered 1GB of free storage.  In terms of an online storage solution, that’s hardly anything these days.  Thankfully they bumped it up to 5GB of free storage that you’ll be able to use, which I’d say isn’t too shabby.

Sharing Content (photos)

RunslideshowIf you intend on sharing content, in particular photos, they recently added a slideshow feature.  Now there’s a “run slideshow” button above the files where you have photos so that you can click it to view all of those photos as a slideshow. You can get a link for the slideshow, or embed it on a blog or site, just like many photo sharing services offer. To start viewing a slideshow, look for the button pictured to the right.

Another recently added feature is the option to share your content.  Just a few days ago, eSnips partnered with a company called Zazzle who does custom printing on t-shirts, mugs, etc.  Any photo that you’ve uploaded can be printed.

Tagging/RSS

Many of you are probably used to organizing content by using tags.  eSnips does utilize tagging so that you can tag all of the content and media that you upload so that it’s easy to find, and searchable.

They also make use of RSS, and a feed is available for just about anything.

Other features

  • Promote your content – eSnips will bring “like minded people who share your interests to you”
  • Share music, videos, flash files, content you find on the web, other media
  • File Uploader tool – use this to upload directly to the site, it makes it fast and easy
  • Toolbar – download their toolbar for a more complete eSnips experience

The mentioned uploader works with Internet Explorer 6, Firefox 1.0+, Mozilla 1.72+, and Netscape 7.x.

Media Storage? Bookmarking? Social Network?

eSnips to me, is media storage, a bookmarking service, and a social network all in one. It’s great as media storage because you can upload your pictures, videos, etc. It’s great as a bookmarking service because you can bookmark content you find on the web like an entire web page or a paragraph, and it’s a social network because you can join a social site based upon your interests.

Wrapping it up

If you like your media and files in one location, and prefer a service that offers the all-in-one solution that is quick and convenient, versus multiple specialized solutions with in-depth features, checkout eSnips!

Visit eSnips

 

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